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Long-lost class ring turns up in Greece

NEW YORK — More than 40 years after a New York man last saw his high school class ring, the love token his wife had until their wedding night popped up on a Greek island.

How it got to Naxos after it disappeared with his bride’s purse at their wedding reception is a mystery. But earlier this month, the ring arrived by mail on Staten Island.

“It doesn’t fit me anymore,” said Stan Ostapiak, a retired police officer. “But my wife will put it back on her key chain, so we can go steady again.”

Ostapiak, 69, graduated from a Manhattan high school in 1962. About a decade later, his wife’s clutch purse was stolen — with the ring inside — the night they were married.

Fast forward four decades: a young Greek man on the island of Naxos came across the ring in his late father’s belongings, with the name of the now defunct Seward Park High School in New York engraved inside.

After some research on the Internet, the finder got in touch with the head of the school’s alumni association, which contacted Ostapiak, a resident of the city’s borough of Staten Island.

The ring soon arrived by registered mail, polished and gleaming in a new box.

“I hope this ring brings you joy and happiness, and maybe some old memories,” the sender, Vasilis Polykretis, wrote on a postcard.